Montville 'Fight Club' Referral Being Handled In New London

Ryan Fish, the former substitute teacher at Montville High School who police said allowed and encouraged one-on-one fights in his classroom. The school system is being investigated because it didn't report the fights. (Courtesy of the Connecticut State Police)

The local state's attorney will determine whether to prosecute Montville school officials for failing to report a substitute teacher who police said encouraged students to engage in timed, one-on-one fights in math class, a spokesperson for the state's top prosecutor said Monday.

A referral from the state Department of Children and Families has been transferred from the chief state's attorney's office in Rocky Hill to New London State's Attorney Michael L. Regan, according to Mark Dupuis. The transfer is not unusual, Dupuis said; the chief state's attorney's office doesn't have the staff to investigate every referral and complaint that comes in, he said.

Teachers and administrators are among the professionals under state law who are mandated reporters. They are required to report to DCF or police any knowledge or suspicion of child abuse or neglect. Failure to report is a Class A misdemeanor, and in some cases can be considered a Class E felony.

DCF in January referred the school system's failure to report what police called a "fight club" condoned by now-fired substitute teacher Ryan Fish, 23, the child protection agency's spokesman said Friday. Fish was arrested April 12 on reckless endangerment, breach of peace and risk of injury charges.

Police said Fish allowed — and, at times, encouraged — slap fights in his math class at Montville High School. Fish said he allowed students to fight four times in his classroom from September to October, and admitted that at one point he did "egg them on," in part because he wanted to connect with them.

The victims ranged in age from 14 to 16. One student showed signs of trauma and was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. A second sustained a bloody nose and a third vomited into a classroom trash can while fighting, police said.

School officials learned about the fights Oct. 10, and Fish was fired the same day. But police were not notified until more than two months later, when a DCF social worker and juvenile court liaison in December told police about the teen who showed signs that he had been traumatized. The teenager said he had been robbed and beaten by other Montville High School students.

Brian Levesque, Montville's superintendent of schools, said Friday that he had only seen one video clip of what he called "slapping or horseplay" in Fish's class in October. Levesque said while the clip was serious enough to lead to Fish's firing, it didn't rise to the level of alerting authorities, including the school resource officer.

It wasn't until the police began their investigation that Levesque said he saw other videos and realized the magnitude of the problem.